(a work in progress. go ahead and respond if you want to; i'll need your "current paradigmatic responses" as examples as i try to bring about this beginning to a "paradigm analysis" that, hopefully, could lead to awarenesss of the need for a "paradigm shift" that would allow us to LIVE!)

sorry, y'all. i'm gonna try to put what i'm feeling down into words. it is going to go against everything that you "believe" and "know to be true" about the "society/civilization" "we" "live" in. (i say "we" because while my body is here, i ain't doing this!! do you really call this "living"?)

what "we believe and know to be true" is called a "paradigm". and everybody will all agree that, in too many instances, or even "for the most part", this paradigm doesn't work. ok, it sort of looks like it works for some of the white people, but what about everybody else?? ?? obviously, the paradigm does not work! time for a "paradigm analysis" whereby we look at what is going on, and how well (or not) it is working and compare it to what should go on when all is working.

the biggest problem with that is that nowhere is there a "model" of what it could look like when it works!! then the next tricky problem is "how does one go about considering a "paradigm analysis" when one can only conceive of anything through that paradigm?".

i can't give you a "definitive" answer on either point. i still have problems trying to express even this much given that i, too, am stuck in the current paradigm.

i think that one way to do this would be to set up a space wherein the "rules" of the current paradigm are "suspended". such a space could only be developed if one were to "let go of", "walk away from", "turn one's back on" everything that one has learned within the context of the current paradigm. immediately, there are gonna arise questions of "yeah, but "that one over there is gonna/not gonna ..."". that is prolly all too true. the key here is not "that one over there". the key is "this one at the center of 'Me'." (your "Me", not my "Me". everybody has a "Me".)

deep inside of each and every one of us, we KNOW that "something is wrong", but we can only keep pushing in terms of this current paradigm. we do feel uneasy about a lot of things. we run into situations where we say "see! i KNEW i should have ...". that is the Truth that Resides In EACH of us speaking to you. RA! Touch that Truth. Be that Truth. let that Truth infuse everything you do, think or see. Believe in that Truth!

but getting to that Truth is not easy.

any discussion about doing anything always comes down to "money". that is a twist that has perpetuated in order to control resources. this planet has never charged a dime for any of the resources needed to sustain any of the life forms that it has created! nary a one! the only "cost" is to help one's neighbor to process that stuff so that both can benefit. but, that is not the way of those that evolved in a place where the resources were scarce or non-existant.

yeah, sure; "we've come a long way, baby!" from those days. and "we" have created a lot of stuff. but, look around; how smoothly is that stuff distributed? how much do you have? you do part of the work that gets the resources out of the ground and onto the table. how much do you have. they sit up in ivory towers shuffling around pieces of paper and don't do any of the hands on. how much do they have? the pieces of paper ain't needed!! that switch will still work. that pump will still pull stuff out of the ground. that refinery will still do the refining.

You know as long as one group has the power to create a paradigm not only for themselves but also for others that paradigm they create for others will not be to the other's benefit.

For three thousand years we had a paradigm that was our own and that worked for us. We don't need to come up with a new unprecedented paradigm. We nee to get back what we had and learn to secure it now that we know how ruthless the white man is we should not be so gullible. Everyone who has been victimized by the white man began as his teacher. They are black widow spiders who eat those who impregnate them with knowledge. We must keep our knowledge this time and guard it as Thoth told us to do in the Emerald Tablets.

Now they think they have enough knowledge to survive indefinately without our creative inpuit so they are trying to destroy us. They are wrong and hopefully they will realize this before we are gone. How much you wanna bet. Even if they do succeed in destroying us it will still be their problem not ours. When we are all trenslated into the realm of the ancestors the playing field will be very different. They can learn about the astral plane but their spirits are not developed to mavagate in it.

If you've been wondering where all the Black fantasy writers are, be sure to check out:
Rhonda Denise Johnson The Writer who Paints Pictures with Words

The cover for The Crossroads of Time was designed by Brotha Rapchild, a professional graphics designer, and video editor for the above trailer.

Speaking for he Child: An Autobiography and a Challenge, depicts my personal experiences going through public schools and facing adulthood with a progressive visual and hearing impairment.http://rhondadenisejohnson.com/speaking

did the paradigm work for us? if so, where did it go? if it was working, it couldn't very well have been supplanted? the metaphysical "astral plane" (not a "place" but a "state of being"?) is all well and good when it can be attained. and for those who Seek enough to attain it. we truly need some concrete stuff on this physical plane, really FAST! (not that it can be attained "FAST!", but we are in a new world of hurt RIGHT NOW! it seems that katrina may be the key that they will use to "put on the table" the things that we have all been feeling since the first "bush-whacking"?

NOWcient Wisdom! NOWstory. spend time, (that "they" aren't giving us), digging out the ancient truths/wisdoms? or recognize the Truths in Our Own Souls?

You know as long as one group has the power to create a paradigm not only for themselves but also for others that paradigm they create for others will not be to the other's benefit.

For three thousand years we had a paradigm that was our own and that worked for us. We don't need to come up with a new unprecedented paradigm. We nee to get back what we had and learn to secure it now that we know how ruthless the white man is we should not be so gullible. Everyone who has been victimized by the white man began as his teacher. They are black widow spiders who eat those who impregnate them with knowledge. We must keep our knowledge this time and guard it as Thoth told us to do in the Emerald Tablets.

Now they think they have enough knowledge to survive indefinately without our creative inpuit so they are trying to destroy us. They are wrong and hopefully they will realize this before we are gone. How much you wanna bet. Even if they do succeed in destroying us it will still be their problem not ours. When we are all trenslated into the realm of the ancestors the playing field will be very different. They can learn about the astral plane but their spirits are not developed to mavagate in it.

Speaking for he Child: An Autobiography and a Challenge, depicts my personal experiences going through public schools and facing adulthood with a progressive visual and hearing impairment.http://rhondadenisejohnson.com/speaking

over and over: "they don't like us". over and over: "they keep taking away ...". over and over: "their tools don't work for us". over and over: "use their tools to better ourselves". over and over: "they took away our identity and gave us this one". over and over: "we can't adopt that identity; it comes from them". over and over: "we need to unite, but we won't ever unite because of ..." ....

already done ... <sigh> smh

how long are we gonna go on talking about how bad it is, and what their plan is, and bringing out "proof" of their "plan for us"? when are we gonna start working toward looking for a "better way"?

and, of course, "anAfrican, you don't understand", "why aren't you sensitive to ,,,,?", "well what are you gonna do about it" ... can't run away from it; gotta keep beating my head against the walls of this ingrained white derived paradigm that everybody is screaming all over the forum is killing us.

yeah, that is what needs to be done ... once that "if" gets out of the picture. i stepped out to the extent that i don't do money; i ain't interested in chasing wealth that i can't do what i want with when i get it. gaining a degree in anything only to run up against a glass ceiling? training some idiot for a lead role in my department? having some "supervisor" give me static about the way i think something should be done ... and then giving me even more when his superiors demand that it is implemented? (and, of course, guess who gets the credit for the idea?)

how would you step out of it? come to think of it, brother james; you did step out of one when you went through that self-searching called psychotherapy! that was a paradigm that you left behind .. er ... i trust that that one was left behind?

did the paradigm work for us? if so, where did it go? if it was working, it couldn't very well have been supplanted? the metaphysical "astral plane" (not a "place" but a "state of being"?) is all well and good when it can be attained. and for those who Seek enough to attain it. we truly need some concrete stuff on this physical plane, really FAST! (not that it can be attained "FAST!", but we are in a new world of hurt RIGHT NOW! it seems that katrina may be the key that they will use to "put on the table" the things that we have all been feeling since the first "bush-whacking"?

NOWcient Wisdom! NOWstory. spend time, (that "they" aren't giving us), digging out the ancient truths/wisdoms? or recognize the Truths in Our Own Souls?